Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Paranormal Activity?


Scary movies are something that many of us enjoy, why many others of us do not. There is something about the thrill of being scared and the shock of being surprised that brings out that small bit of life inside us that nothing else has the ability to penetrate. Arguably the most popular and profitable scary movies that have been made in recent years are the Paranormal Activity movies. These stories, while are admittedly always somewhere between creepy and terrifying, tell the story of a family that is haunted by evil spirits because of a deal that was made with the devil for wealth and power by a family ancestors. Death and torment plague the characters in the movie throughout the series and no matter how hard they try or how far the run, they cannot escape the evil that relentlessly pursues them.
 
It is easy to watch these movies, be scared, and then afterward try to comfort yourself by telling yourself: “Ah, that wasn’t real, it is just a story. That sort of thing doesn’t really happen.” The spiritual world is one that we as humans will never fully understand and I firmly believe that God meant it to be that way. While we are fighting a spiritual battle and living a world controlled by spiritual forces, we have not been called to focus on or dwell in a realm other than the realm in which God has placed us. The devil is real and demons are real and they are absolutely trying to harm you and cause you to run as far from Jesus Christ as possible. They have no other concern than drag you into a spiritual wilderness apart from Jesus.

While you can try and comfort yourself all you want and tell yourself that there are not really evil forces out there trying to seek and destroy, you would be entirely wrong. Now should we take these movies as real events or even accurate descriptions of the spiritual evils that do exist? I don’t think so. But the reality is that there is paranormal activity in our world. There are evil forces trying to destroy us. And there are good forces trying to do the opposite. CS Lewis said, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” We must be aware and believe that there are devils and they are trying to harm us. But we also must not feel an unhealthy obsession or fascination with them. In other words, we must not focus on them or dwell in a state of mind where that becomes our reality. Be aware of paranormal activity but do not fear it and do not live in it. 

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